Air register



Aug. 3, 1954 Il Illllllll n .IIMHHHII Aug 3, 1954 M. G. sAUNDE-Rs, JR

AIR REGISTER 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed April 4, 1950 INVENTOR ATTORNEYSPatented Aug. 3, 1.9584

AIR REGISTER Marcellus G. Saunders, Jr., Winston-Salem, N. C.,

assigner to The Bahnson Company, Winston- Salem, N. C., a corporation ofNorth Carolina Application April 4, 1950, Serial No. 153,780

1 claim. 1

The present invention relates to registers for use in controlling thedistribution of air issuing from a duct into a room.

An object of the invention is to provide an improved construction for anair register having a removable inner frame carrying louvers disposedoutside the duct for controlling the direction at which air issuing fromthe duct opening is distributed into the room.

Another object is to provide an improved construction for the inner,louver carrying frame itself.

The foregoing as well as other objects and advantages inherent in theinvention will become more apparent from the following detaileddescription of a preferred constructional embodiment thereof and theaccompanying drawings in which Figs. 1 and 2 are front and rear views inperspective of the improved air register;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary view in perspective of a corner portion of theremovable inner frame of the register;

Fig. 4 is a Vertical section through the register taken on line 4 4 ofFig. 5;

Fig. 5 is a horizontal section on line 5-5 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is a horizontal section on line 6 6 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 7 is a vertical section on line 'I-I of Fig. 4; and

Fig. 8 is a vertical section on line 8--8 of Fig. 7.

Referring now to the drawings and in particular to Figs. 1-3, theimproved register is seen to be comprised of an outer, rectangular frameI having an outwardly turned peripheral ange 2 at the rear end andinwardly turned peripheral ange 3 at the front end. For convenience inmanufacture the four sides of the frame are made in separate sectionsand joined together in any slidable manner such as by means of L shapedbrackets 4 placed at the corners of the frame but on the rear facethereof so as to be hidden from view.

A sealing gasket 5 extends around the frame on the rear face of flange 2to prevent escape of any air between the latter and the marginalportions of the wall 6 surrounding the duct opening 'I and ange 2 isprovided with a plurality of spaced apertures 8 for receiving screws 9by means of which the outer frame I can be secured more or lesspermanently to the wall.

The inner, rectangular frame II is preferably made up from spaced pairsof mutually perpendicular channel members I2-I5. The channels faceoutwardly and the end faces of the horizontal channel members I2, I3abut against the end portions of the vertical members I4, I5. To securethe four frame members rigidly together, it will be observed that eachof the horizontal frame members I2, I3 is provided with two adjoiningtongues I6, I1 at each end thereof which project through slots I8provided in the ends of the vertical channel members I4, I5. After belngpassed through Slots I8 tongues I6 are turned down to lie flat againstthe vertical channel members I4, I5 thus holding all four frame memberstogether. The other tongues I1 serve a different function to beexplained later.

The inner frame II carries two sets of louvers, one set being arrangedhorizontally for independent angular adjustment about a horizontal axis,and the other set being arranged vertically for independent adjustmentabout a vertical axis.

As seen clearly in Fig. 3, each of the louvers I9 or the horizontal sethas a pivot pin 20 extending axially from each end and these are passedthrough correspondingly sized apertures provided in the vertical channelmembers I4, I5. For holding louvers I9 in any desired angle ofadjustment, a spring strip 2| is used in each of the vertical channelmembers. Strip 2I which extends the entire length of the channel and iscontained wholly within the same traces a sinuous course under one pin20, over the next pin 20 under the next adjacent pin 20, etc. Since allof the pins 20 are aligned, spring strip 2I will be bowed intofrictional contact with each of the pins thus providing a frictionallock for each of the louvers I 9. To establish the bow in strip 2I forthose louver pivot pins nearest the ends of the channel members, theterminal ends of the strip 20 are anchored behind the unbent tongues IIpreviously mentioned and which are located substantially in alignmentwith the row of apertures in the vertical channel members I4, I5 andhence also the pins 20 to thereby establish for the louver pivot pinsnearest the ends of the channel members a frictional lock ofsubstantially the same characteristic as is obtained for the pinsintermediate the end pins in the row.

Louvers 22 of the vertical set are pivotally mounted in spaced relationalong the horizontal channel members I2, I3 in the same manner aslouvers I8. Spring strips 23 bowed back and forth around the pivot pins24 provide frictional locking for the Vertical louvers, and the terminalends of the spring strips 23 are anchored in slots 25 in the ends of thevertical channels I4, I5, the

3 slots 25 also being located substantially in alignment with the row ofpivot pins 24 so that the end pins get the same characteristic offrictional locking as the intermediate pins.

The inner frame ll with its two sets of pivotally mounted louvers I9, 22thus constitutes an integral subassembly, and is dimentioned to make aclose sliding t within the outer frame l. In the illustratedconstruction, frame il is longer than it is wide. Also as is evidentfrom the drawings the depth of frame Il is less than the distancebetween the inwardly turned flanges 3 at the longer sides of the outerframe. Therefore to facilitate installation of the inner frame Il in theouter frame l, the narrow side of the former is passed entirely throughthe latter from the front or room side into the duct then turned to itsproper position in alignment with the opening in frame I and slidforward in the latter until the front face of the inner frame I l isstopped by the inturned flange 3 on frame l.

A pair of spring latches located centrally at the upper and lower sidesof the inner frame il and seen particularly Well in Figs. 7 and 8 areused to fasten inner frame I1 in the outer frame I. The toe portion '2lof each latch is biased by a cantilever spring 28 into a correspondinglyaligned keeper 29 in the outer frame l and can be released byapplication of pressure to a linger piece 30.

In conclusion it will be understood that while the illustratedembodiment is preferred, various changes may be made in the constructionand arrangement of the component parts without however departing fromthe spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claim.

I claim:

A rectangular inner frame for air registers comprising spaced mutuallyperpendicular pairs of outwardly facing channel members, each channelmember of one of said pairs having dual adjoining tongues at each endthereof extending through slots in the end portions of the other pair vof channel members, one of the tongues at each end being unbent and theother bent against the bottom of the end slotted channel member tosecure said pairs of channel members together, a set of independentlyadjustable louvers having end pivot pins extending through a row oilongitudinally spaced openings in the end slotted channel members, and aspring strip in each end slotted channel member extending sinuously overand under adjacent pivot pins from one end of the member to the other,the terminal ends of said strip being anchored behind said unbenttongues located substantially in alignment with said row of spacedopenings thereby to establish a substantially uniform friotional lockfor the pivot pins of all said louvers.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 102,478 Betts May 3, 1870 147,080 Tuttle Feb. 3, 1874 456,520Reese July 21, 1891 732,809 Zborowski July 7, 1903 978,129 Bailey Dec.13, 1910 1,807,164 Modine May 26, 1931 1,838,207 Allen Dec. 29, 19312,029,153 Burner Jan. 28, 1936 2,051,613 Macleod Aug. 18, 1936 2,152,566Phillips Mar. 28, 1939 2,303,254 Bules Nov. 24, 1942 2,310,843 DitzlerFeb. 9, 1943 2,340,570 Siebenlist Feb. l, 1944 2,395,319 Davies Feb. 19,1946 2,464,442 De Roo Mar. 15, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date518,399 Great Britain Feb. 26, 1940

